


It's My Birthday

by desperationandgin



Category: Lost
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 06:17:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/909890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desperationandgin/pseuds/desperationandgin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Juliet drunk dials James in the middle of the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's My Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> Randomly written for no good reason, other than I really love writing drunk!Juliet.

There’s a phone in the security station, unassuming, black, typical 1975 phone, and it never rings. James stopped wondering what the hell it was for a long time ago, figured it didn’t matter. The only phone that rings down here is the red one, and that’s orders from Horace or Radzinsky thinking he’s got more authority than he actually does. James just takes it with a grain of salt, never really listening to the guy anyway.  
  
It’s late, about two in the morning, and his eyes graze over the fuzzy black and white monitors before he leans forward to start working on the damn fence part requisition forms. He’s got no idea why being the boss means he hasn’t delegated the busy work to Phil or Jerry, but hell, here he is while Miles aimlessly searches the tapes from last night for whoever busted into the cafeteria and took a shit ton of food. His guess is the DHARMA teenagers while high as kites, but he’s still gotta have proof before he takes his claim to H. The whirring of the rewinding and fast forwarding is the only sound until the phone rings. Automatically, Miles reaches to his side to answer the red phone. But before he can say hello, he gives the receiver a weird look. The phone rings again.  
  
“Jim. That’s you, buddy,” he nods at the black phone. The two of them stare at it for a while before James grabs it off the hook and brings it tentatively to his ear, forehead creased.  
  
“This is LaFleur,” he says, almost cautiously. He frowns when there’s only heavy breathing for a minute, then it’s like someone’s shifting the phone around.  
  
“I figured it out. I’ll apprentice with the sub pilot.” The voice is a little thick, a little slurred, a little sad.  
  
“…Juliet?” He looks at Miles who stares in return. “How’d you get this number?”  
  
“I’ve been…I’ve been here…before, remember? I know a lot of…about everything.”  
  
James stares at the phone and holy shit, she’s drunk, and she’s calling him, and he has no idea what he’s supposed to do. The last time she was drunk they were drunk together on the beach as they watched the freighter go up in smoke. “How much you had to drink there, Blondie?”  
  
“I…I dunno, what’s. What’s in your fridge?”  
  
“You drank all  _my_  booze? The hell you doin’ at my house?”  
  
Miles is shaking his head and just goes back to what he was doing, letting the two of them figure it out.  
  
“I was. I wanted to see you. And I forgot. You were out there. Working. You’re working, but I needed…” She stops her thought on a heavy sigh. “I drank it all.”  
  
“That’s every can I got,” he says, worried before he remembers that together they polished off an entire bottle of rum, and she’d had a pretty big head start. She’d be okay. Hell of a headache in the morning though.  
  
“Look. I was…I’ll get you more, but I got it. I figured…everything is okay, because I can jus’ ask Horace, and he’ll let me work there. Sub stuff. I’ll work on it.”  
  
Rubbing his forehead for a second, James lowers his voice. “Where the hell are you gonna go on that sub? Unless you can make it a damn time machine, you ain’t getting’ back to 2004. Or 2005. Whatever it is now. Stay at my place, take a shower. Drink some water. Go to bed. We’ll talk about it, okay?”  
  
There’s silence before a sniffle. “Today’s my birthday. I’m four.”  
  
Covering up the mouth piece, James whispers at Miles. “Get Jin up. Get him down here. Tell him I owe him.” Then, he turns his attention back to the phone. “Blondie? You give me ten minutes. I’ll be there.”  
  
He hangs up at her soft ‘kay’, and looks at Miles, daring him to say anything. When Jin shows up he looks sleepy but not irritated and James offers his thanks and to take a night shift whenever the other man wants. Then, he makes his way home. When he opens the door it’s dark. “Juliet?” He takes off his boots, leaves them by the door. Unzips his jumpsuit so that the top hangs down around his waist and he walks through the house. At the kitchen table he counts nine cans of beer – almost the whole damn pack – and he shakes his head, walking back to the bedroom.  
  
She’s there; sprawled on his bed wearing one of the shirts Horace gave out for DHARMA’s anniversary on the island. It’s huge on her, and he realizes it’s his. He checks her, makes sure she’s breathing, before going to the bathroom, taking a quick shower and coming back with a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin. He puts them both on the night stand, then sits on the edge of the bed by her legs. He watches her face for a second before moving her so that he can pull the sheet up over her body. He wonders what chipped away for so long at a woman he knows is stronger than nine beers and a drunk dial. He ain’t got a clue if she’ll actually open up when she’s sober. She’s got a good way of avoiding things.  
  
Standing, intending to go to the couch, he’s stopped by fingers on his wrist, and he turns to look at her. Her eyes are still closed, but he doesn’t miss her words.  
  
“Stay,” she murmurs, making an attempt to scoot over.  
  
He hesitates, wondering if this is about as inappropriate as he can get – letting a drunk Juliet talk him into sleeping in the same bed with her. For a second he wonders when he started caring about what type of woman was in his bed, but this is…different. It’s Juliet, and he kissed her once two weeks ago, but this feels like taking advantage. Her hand finally drops off of his wrist as he just stands there, and she finally opens her eyes to look at him in the dark. Maybe there’s a little embarrassment there that he can see in the dark, and she rolls over, facing away from him.  
  
Sighing, he runs a hand over his face before climbing into bed. Reaching for her, he pulls her back against him, hand splaying across her stomach. Leaning up, he kisses the spot right above her ear. “Get some sleep, Blondie.” He feels her relax against him, back molding to his chest, and soon he can feel the rhythmic rise and fall of her breathing.   
  
He figures it’ll be a different story in the morning, but for now he lets himself think that she was going to say she needed him when she was on the phone.


End file.
